I have what you would call an ‘extended family’ in Lima, the capital of Perú. My friend’s boy is just now beginning school.

I don’t have to tell anybody about the appalling state of public school in most countries of the world. But maybe you don’t realize what economical poverty is on a reality plane:

A monthly transfer of money sent to aid in the monthly cost of schooling – to people, who just scrape by – is safer than one large one-time transfer.

But, having paid online and transferred money online for as long as it has been possible, my only solution for regular payments to Perú appears to still be good old Western Union – you know, the money transfer company that charges between 10 and 25%. Just like the banks.

PayPal

PayPal according to their user agreement charge between 0.3 and 5% to transfer money between people, the maximum for countries “outside” – countries not Europe, North America, Australia and certain other select countries and economies around the world.

Perú is on the list of countries, whose citizens can create an account with PayPal.

As is all other countries.

–

Thus, with all good conscience, I put my friends through the rigors of setting up a PayPal account and getting a bank account, which is not an easy deal in Perú.

It took a few weeks.

I then made a small test transfer of $US, which is the un-official secondary currency of Perú.

Upon reception into my friend’s PayPal account Paypal then proceeded to tell my friends that they could only take out money from PayPal into a US-bank account.

Incidentally, creating a US-bank acount is only possible, if you are 1. physically in the United States, 2. have a US-address, 3. is a US citizen.

PayPal apologized profusely:

PayPal is working on being able to transfer money into a bank in Peru.

Seven years ago, when my friends’ boy was born, and I wanted to transfer money as a gift, this is what PayPal told me:

PayPal is working on being able to transfer money into a bank in Peru.

Consequence:

I can transfer funds into my friends’ new PayPal account, but the money has to stay online, in (and as) the holdings of PayPal, as PayPal has not negotiated a deal with Perúvian banks to pay out into a bank account

PayPal compound a lot of interest on the money that reside in people’s PP-accounts.

Now my friends have a PayPal account with money in it…

My Perúvian friends cannot use money I transfer to them via PayPal to pay for anything but what counts as western consumerism – services, A/V media, clothes etc., and most centered in and around the major currencies.

This is not an option for people, who just scrape by. Poor people need to spend their money locally on daily necessities such as food, transportation and education; not pay import tax, VAT, shipping and administration fees etc. for items bought online.

A pattern is emerging

–

Positively annoyed with the whole shebang, I began to wonder just how many countries’ banks PayPal are really able to transfer money to.

One thing is having an online stash, to spend online – PayPal benefits hugely from that – but actually doing what they claim: Receiving money from people, from paypal account into a bank account with minimal charge…

The answer is not a set number countries. The answer is: it only works in certain CURRENCIES!

Send Money [Website headline]

PayPal is the safer, easier way to pay. You can pay or send money from 190 countries and regions [my emphasis] supported [my emphasis] by PayPal.

In actuality PayPal can only pay out currencies that fit the bank – hereby excluding banks in most developing countries.

6. Withdrawing/Redeeming E- money

6.1 … The bank account into which you request the redemption of E-money must be denominated in the home currency of your Account.

“Home currency” in fact compounds to 23 countries with individual currency accepted by PayPal, plus 23 countries in EU paying with Euro. That is a total of 46 countries.

Countries and regions, which accept US dollar, Australian dollar, British pounds, New Zeeland dollar and Euro as addendum to their own currency are also accepted by PayPal.

Add to this nations with currencies dependant on the major currencies of $US, $AU, £UK and €EU.

See the pattern?

The “acceptance” leaves out 100+ independant currencies, counting more than 100 countries, into whose banks PayPal cannot make transfers. [wikipedia]

Some may argue that unstable national economies are not good for business. Or that fear of money laundering and feeding terrorist’s cells may be a viable excuse. But either way PayPal is NOT a solution to moving money – that’s just their company pitch. Remember PayPal blocking payments to WikiLeaks and others?

PayPal isn’t and will never be politically independent from US and International policies. Too much is at stake here.

This is the reason PayPal don’t actually extend or over-exert themselves. Seven years down the line nothing has changed – because the economic policies of the world as viewed from the US are the same.

“People getting paid”…?

–

I am offended.

Excuse me, but I am. I am not ignorant of market politics and monetary border crossing. It is just a blatant offense to the way everything coheres that the trust and confidence, which IS international economy, has to be based on a lie!

(I retain my right to remain the little boy at the Emperor’s parade).

If I had a low-cost alternative to getting paid that does not work along the same lines as PayPal, I would close my PP-account. But getting paid to pay is the new black. BIG BUSINESS. All are doing it the same way as PayPal.

Some day the missing countries will come aboard is not going to happen. Simple competition and showbusiness benefit from Fake it until you make it, but international money transfers are government level and government control, and they know what they want:

Every new online money transfer company can relatively freely act as Internet Banks, as long as that entails playing along with the suppression of certain economies and currencies!

But, don’t take my word for it. Think about it.

–

My ultimate and personal conclusion: Transparency.

Employing Western Union and Forex I have to pay a high price to transfer money, but at least this part of my assistance to further education does not make me a part to international economic suppression. I just get a service and feed a company making a buck.

Note: Commenter is allowed to use '@User+blank' to automatically notify your reply to other commenter. e.g, if ABC is one of commenter of this post, then write '@ABC '(exclude ') will automatically send your comment to ABC. Using '@all ' to notify all previous commenters. Be sure that the value of User should exactly match with commenter's name (case sensitive).